General Discussion
Documents related to this Application are available here.
You can comment on this application using this form.
I would like to offer some history to this building as I spent a happy childhood with my grandparents, Mr and Mrs Lane here from the 1960s through to their passing in the 1990s.
I am pleased to see that the gig barn and part of the building is to be restored as a dwelling and feel a narrative might be helpful in its future.
SJ Hardwick (MBE).
Hi Simon,
Thanks for your input.
I see from your comments on the planning application portal that your grandparents lived in the vicarage for some while in the past and that you would like to put in the public domain what you remember of that time (or words to that effect).
I am sure many of us who visit this website would like to know as well. Would you like to tell us on this thread or would you prefer to relate your family's history of the building to an organisation say, like, Dawlish History group?
Thanks again
Lynne
From the minutes of Dawlish town council planning committee meeting held 1.10.20
RESOLVED by majority of Members present and voting that this council recommends NO OBJECTION to this application. It was further resolved that should the officer be minded to refuse this application that a request be made to go to Teignbridge Planning Committee as approval of this application is in the public interest.
It seems to me that TDC planning committee can't win on this one.
There is an awful lot of support for the planning application from local residents and the town council.
BUT objections are being put forward from various authorities (Historic England/TDC Heritage) that to demolish it or alter it anyway should not be allowed. More to the point, and as I understand it, planning regulations, in the form of the NPPF*, say that the building should be left as it is.
I have also read that to alter or demolish a listed building, without permission, is to break the law.
So.....if TDC planning committee members approve the planning application then they are not only going against planning regulations (which should guide them in their decision making) but will also be advocating, aiding and abetting, call it what you will, law breaking.
But if they refuse planning consent then they will really, really, p/off many Dawlish residents and both residents and the town will be stuck with this ever deteriorating eyesore for years to come.
Please will someone come back at me and explain why I am wrong.
*National Planning Policy Framework
I mentioned the NPPF. If anyone is interested in what it has to say with regard to historic buildings then click on this link and scroll down to page 54. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/810507/NPPF_Feb_2019_print_revised.pdf
In its letter dated 20/10/20 objecting to this planning application, Historic England state that if TDC is minded to grant planning permission then HE request (order?) that the matter be referred to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities, and Local Government.
Called-in applications
The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government has the power to take over (‘call in’) planning applications rather than letting the local authority decide. The secretary of state will normally only do this if the application conflicts with national policy in important ways, or is nationally significant.
He or she has to take published government policy into account when deciding whether or not to call in a planning application, and when making the decision. If the secretary of state decides to call in a planning application, an inspector is appointed to carry out an inquiry into the proposal. The secretary of state has to take the inspector’s findings into account when making the decision.
There is an interesting submission made by the Old Vicarage Action Group that has today been put on the planning portal.
Click on 'Documents related to this application are available here' (see first post on this thread) and then click on 'New Document' to the right of Monday 18th Jan if you're interested in reading what they have to say.
Personally, I think the current planning application should be passed as something needs to be done about this festering eyesore. What would be the point of the council issuing a Compulsory Purchase Order? It would be another property with no purpose which needs expensive maintenance funded by our Council Tax, in much the same way that the Manor needs ongoing maintenance, mainly due to its age. To be honest, from old photos as far as I can see, the property never had much architectural value anyway, apart from its age. I think the action group make a very good case for the acceptance of the owner's current plans.
For those interested in following this continuing saga (for that is what it is) TDC have now placed on its planning portal a letter from Historic England concerning the remedial works it (HE) is suggesting should take place on the building to prevent further deterioration.
Letter is dated January 2020 but as it refers to a site visit made by Historic England, TDC officers and the owner of the site in November 2020 I think the date should be January 2021.
The letter gives a schedule of works that HE believes should be undertaken and with regard to one aspect the expression 'very expensive' is used. TDC planners and officers are drawing up a list of all repair works that need to be done which, according to this letter, will then be presented to the owner.
No mention anywhere of who is responsble for paying for the repair works. The owner? TDC? (ie us). HE?
What happens if the repair work is not undertaken and as a consequence the building deteriorates even more as I believe has happened previously.
Strikes me it's like going around in a never ending circle.
Waste of time and money. The thing is now irreparable and has become a blot on the landscape of Dawlish. The people living around it must despair. The rot set in when the council allowed the building of a modern estate of houses in the former grounds of a historic property and now there is no going back, however much 'Historic England' would like to.
Campaigners prepare case for Ombudsman over Old Vicarage
Residents of Weech Road are becoming increasingly frustrated by the latest developments relating to the semi-derelict Old Vicarage – saying they’re still being excluded from all discussions on the building’s future.
Article on the building dated October 2021.
https://www.spab.org.uk/news/building-month-old-vicarage-13-weech-road-dawlish-devon ;
I think this is a classic example of where national planning policies to preserve the building (such as it still can be preserved that is) over rides local public opinion that the site is now a dangerous eyesore and should be developed.
Such a shame that it has been allowed to deteriorate so much. Who to blame? The present owner? The Local Authority?
Hasn't this saga been going on for years now?
Oh and do you know the biggest sick joke of all of this? Back in the summer, when the public consultation was taking place concerning the Local Plan Review and where all the new housing should be built, one of the sites put forward by TDC was.........yes, you've guessed it - the site of the Old Vicarage at Weech Road.
True!
Click on this link and scroll down to Number 5
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/dbca7d53b2d947caac7e84a5b7e3ee9f
Good luck with any "sensitive restoration & conversion" of the existing buildings, seeing as most of it is a complete wreck 
https://www.middevonadvertiser.co.uk/news/councillors-summoned-to-discuss-eyesore-589023
Public meeting being held this evening (Friday 20th Jan 2023) at The Swan pub, 7pm concerning this never ending saga.